Started our saurkraut last night

Well, we put up a few pint of saurkraut last night. I'm hoping it turns out ok. The last time I tried I couldn't get the flavor I was looking for. My Mom told me how she does hers, which is so simple. Just add salt and boiling water to cover the cabbage. She got the recipe from my late SIL, who got it from her Dad's family, who were German/Dutch, so I'm hoping it turns out good. Our cabbage isn't getting as big as I had hoped. I think it got too hot too fast, so we're having to harvest them earlier than I had planned.

Let me know how it goes, I'm planning to do some later this year too.

Will do. I'm really hoping for some good results. Last time we made kraut it just didn't taste right. So I'm trying to figure out how to make some my family will like

I am excited to hear. I really want to try this but we like the Bavarian or sweeter kind of sauerkraut.

mmm I love sauerkraut!!

I don't eat sauerkraut but I have always wanted to try to make some. The folks in my worship group like it. It wouldn't eat it but I would like to make it for them. I feel the same way about mushrooms - I would like to grow them for people but I won't eat them.

I've been using Joe as the guinea pig.   It's not quite ready yet, but getting there.  I figure in the next couple of days we'll be ready to seal it in jars.

mom12700, could you post a recipe for the sweeter kind. I think I might like that one better.

Well, our saurkraut was ready, so we canned it tonight.  Now we have more cabbages ready to work up.  I love it when it's time to harvest things.

That didn't take too long to ferment, I hope to have enough to try kraut making this year.

The recipe, such as it was, I got from my Mom and the time is 7 to 10 days.  We could probably have gone a bit longer, but I don't like it too sour.  I think the thing that sped it up was using boiling water to pour over the cabbage to get the fermentation process started.  Just boiling water and salt.

Could you post your recipe please, I really want to can some myself this year? Did you start it in the jars or in a crock?

I was planning on doing it in the crock, but it got so hot so fast here that they didn't grow very big heads, so we opted to do it in the jars.  I used pint size jars.  I cut the cabbage in shreds.  I boiled some water.  Then I put the cabbage and 1/4 tsp of salt in each pint jar and tamped them down as tight I could get and poured the boiling water over it to cover it.  We placed cheesecloth, secured with the jar rings over the top to allow them to ferment.  To be honest, I didn't measure the salt, so that's a rough estimate.

Thanks   Did you have to skim any scum from the jars and did you have to weight down the cabbage?

We only had to skim it once and didn't have problems with it floating to the top, but that could be because I had packed it in so tight and every night we'd check and it was still covered.

Thanks Sonshine, just want an idea what I'll be getting myself into.

OK I told ya all I know nothing. What is cheese cloth and where do I get it?

I take it that is something I need to have before I start canning. our tomato plants are about a foot tall and thick. I don't think it will be long before we see little tomatoes.

Carla, cheesecloth is a very thin cotton fabric used for making cheese or to allow things to breath without worry of dust/fruit flies settling on top of it.

I make sauerkraut in a #8 crock.  I shred cabbage and weigh out five lbs which goes in the crock with three tablespoons of salt sprinkled on and then stomped down with my stomper.  Five more lbs of cabbage follows with three table spoons of salt stomped down.  I continue this until the crock is full.  If I remember right it usually takes about 70 lbs of shredded cabbage to fill my crock.  I then cover it all with cheese cloth tucked down in around the top of the cabbage with a few slits cut in the cheese cloth to let the gases from the fermentation escape.  I put a gallon jug of water on top to weight it down and always make sure it is completely covered with liquid.  If the liquid begins to go down I add salt water to bring it back up again.  Usually it is done in about 3-4 weeks and I put it in cans and cold pack it.

My dad used to make it and put a small bit of brown sugar in every third time or so when he added cabbage to sweeten it a bit.  I have never used any sugar in mine.

Makes me hungry for pork loin cooked in the slow cooker all night and then covered with sauerkraut for a couple of hours.  Served with mashed potatoes and peas with about an inch of sauerkraut on top and the meat on the side it is about the best dinner you can get.  Yum! Yum!

Rohn, if we had had enough cabbage we would have made it in our crock, but it got too hot too fast here so my cooler weather plants started dying on me.  Next year I'm going to have to get them in the ground in Feb. I guess.

All this talk about sauerkraut has made me decide to make some this year. I'll have to find that recipe I have that uses it with apples and brown sugar and pork although I would have to change out the pork for beef kielbasa.

I'll be buying cabbage later this year and making sauerkraut.  I have never had much luck growing it myself.  I may try growing it again some year.  The last time I made sauerkraut someone from my church gave me the cabbage.  I am about out so will have to make some more this year.

This is the first year we had any luck at all with cabbage.  Last time I tried to grow it, the rabbits got all the benefits from it.  This year it seemed like we were going to have a good crop, but the temps went from the 60's to the 90's almost over night.  It really played havoc with my cabbage, spinach and english peas.  I guess instead of planting them the beginning of March I need to get them out the end of January.  I'm going to try to do some spinach as a fall crop, along with collard greens and possibly more cabbage.